Wednesday, June 12, 2013

We're Nummer Eins!

For years right-wing legal scholars have proclaimed there was no "right to privacy" as enumerated by the Warren Court beginning in Griswold v. Connecticut.
Over the years the jurisprudence has come to support the findings of the Warren Court about fifty years ago.
Of course, it turns out the government has been making this argument all very irrelevant.

German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation when he lands in Berlin next week and one official likening the tactics to those of the East German Stasi.

You know it's bad when the German's start comparing your present to their past.
Former NSA Official Thomas Drake said in an interview that the present NSA data mining makes the Stasi seem quaint. Which is a phrase you don't see applied to the East German Secret Police very often.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

A lot of those "right-wing legal scholars" would have happily worked for the Stasi had they found themselves living in East Germany.

I find it more than a little perplexing that "right to privacy" is such a quarrelsome concept for them, since the 4th Amendment is pretty clear on it, and the 9th Amendment reserves other unenumerated rights to the people. It's not hard to figure out, guys.

But, the Germans and the German press may be up in arms about U.S. behavior, but, I doubt seriously that Angela Merkel is going to be lecturing Obama on police state activities anytime soon. It's not in her.